The U.S. Congress last week was handed the statistical analysis of the first three years of the groundbreaking Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program (NTPP), which dedicated $25 million to each of four communities across the country to accurately demonstrate whether such investments equate to significantly higher levels of walking and bicycling, and a reduction in vehicle miles traveled.

Ever since the first leg of the Bayshore Bikeway in San Diego Bay, Calif. was built in 1976, this much-loved pathway has been an integral part of life in this city. Looping around San Diego Bay, this pathway has been the catalyst for the growth in walking and biking in this sunny, seaside community, serving residents and commuters as well as it does tourists and Sunday strollers.

The rail-trail movement is fortunate to have a number of active supporters in positions of municipal leadership-men and women well-placed to convert an understanding of the benefits of trails and active transportation into actual projects and programs. Greg Cox is one such champion.

The great news is that the first-ever Kansas City 'Hack-a-Thon' is charged with creating a mobile application for citizens to find safe and convenient places to walk or bike, report road or sidewalk hazards, and provide data to local officials planning new bike lanes, trails and sidewalks.

"There is a perception that (trails) are nice amenities from a recreational standpoint, but with $4-a-gallon gas I have seen a lot of people out there biking and making an economic choice," Shailen Bhatt, secretary of the Delaware Department of Transportation, told Delaware Online this week.

Word just came in from the Department of Transportation that the U.S. Congress will later today receive the much-anticipated report detailing the measureable impacts of the Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program (NTPP).

Peter Marteka, the hiking and outdoor recreation columnist for the Hartford Courant in central Connecticut, wrote earlier this month about the newly built Andover covered bridge. Marteka is certainly not the only person to have wondered from time to time whether the much-anticipated bridge over what has come to be known as the 'Andover Gap' along the Hop River State Park Trail would ever be complete.

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) is this week mobilizing its thousands of members and supporters in Pennsylvania in defense of the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund--a immensely popular and successful program that has supported trails and open space creation in that state for the past 19 years.